President Donald Trump on Wednesday vehemently denied a news report alleging that the United States had approved Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike deep into Russia, labeling the claim as “fake news.”
The President made his position clear in a post on social media and reiterated it to reporters in the Oval Office, stating the U.S. has “nothing to do with those missiles” and that he did not grant permission for such strikes.
“The Wall Street Journal story on the U.S.A.’s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long-range missiles deep into Russia is fake news!” President Trump wrote. “The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!”
When pressed by reporters about the report claiming a key U.S. restriction on European missiles had been lifted, President Trump gave a definitive “no.”
“It said that I gave Ukraine permission to shoot missiles deep into Russia. I didn’t do that,” he said.
The President emphasized that Ukraine is not currently using U.S. missiles. “They’re using, I think, European missiles from someplace, but they’re not using ours. And what they do, I don’t control that, but I do control our missiles,” he stated.
The refutation comes days after Ukraine’s military reported using Franco–British Storm Shadow missiles to strike a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region on October 21.
President Trump has recently been engaged in talks to push Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war. Following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on October 17, Trump had expressed hopes of resolving the conflict without sending U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv.
During Wednesday’s meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the President elaborated on the complexities surrounding the potential use of Tomahawk missiles by Ukraine, suggesting a significant learning curve.
“The problem with the tomahawk that a lot of people don’t know: it’ll take a minimum of six months, usually a year, to learn how to use them,” Trump told reporters. He later stressed that the U.S. would not be launching a Tomahawk on Ukraine’s behalf.
“The only way a Tomahawk is going to be shot is if we shot it. And we’re not going to do that,” he said, concluding that teaching their use to Ukraine was “too far out into the future.”
The denial also coincided with Russia conducting a test launch of its nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic and cruise missiles on Wednesday.
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